Halloween, A Terrifying Time For Teeth!

17 Oct Halloween, A Terrifying Time For Teeth!

Too many sweets this Halloween? Watch out for decay….

This Halloween, there will be plenty of ghosts, scary clowns, witches and monsters around, as well as plenty of fun games, parties and music.

The UK has truly embraced Halloween over the last few years as American traditions make their way over here, and the witching hour becomes a much bigger occasion. We’re not here to spoil the fun of course, but this Halloween, Crown House Dental in Egham would like to raise parent’s awareness of the bigger risks of damage to their children’s teeth during this holiday period.

Following “trick or treating” your child is going to have a big bag full of sweets. This is beyond exciting for children, but parents need to remain aware of the heightened risk of tooth damage. You probably won’t avoid sweets altogether unless you choose to remove your children from the celebrations completely, so it is worth instead working around what will happen to minimise the effects of the sweets instead. Here’s how:

Fill Your Kids Up With Healthy Food Before The Witching Hour

Before you take your children out to trick or treat, fill them up on healthy food so they won’t be nibbling on sweets through hunger. Make sure they know if they don’t finish their meal they won’t be getting any sweets (to avoid them staying hungry to consume more of the naughty things!)

Provide Healthy Treats Along With The Naughty Ones

Provide healthy treats along with the sweets and chocolate, like playing Halloween music, watching a scary film, or playing Halloween themed games. So although they might only be allowed a certain amount of sweets, hopefully they won’t notice because they will be playing fun games and enjoying other things!

Give Them A Set Period Of Time To Eat Sweets

The longer your children are consuming sweets the longer their teeth are getting attacked. Rather than giving them sweets over the night, consider giving them a set period of time where they can have sweets, like half an hour or an hour. This limits how long the teeth are being exposed to higher risk of decay and acid erosion.

Give Them Water

Try to encourage them to drink water as they consume sweets which helps rinse away the residue but also encourages the mouth to make saliva which naturally fights bad bacteria.

Take Out The Really Bad Sweets

This may not be an option for you, however, if you can, you may want to try and encourage your child to avoid certain sweets, or you can remove them yourself. Certain sweets are worse for teeth such as highly acidic sweets, sticky sweets and boiled sweets. They either contain high amounts of damaging acid and sugar, prolong the amount of time the teeth are exposed to sugar, or they stick into the little gaps in-between the teeth. If you can help your child avoid these types of sweets, their teeth will benefit.

Follow Good Oral Hygiene All Year Round

As long as your child is enjoying excellent oral hygiene all year round, the odd splurge isn’t going to do any harm. Regular brushing, using the right toothbrush and toothpaste, eating the right food and drink, and visiting your local Egham dentist regularly will all contribute to a solid oral health plan. Need to make an appointment or register with us? Then please call us on 01784432641 and we will be more than happy to help.